End of the Month Summary – April 2021

It’s good to take a break sometimes. I made no trades in March other than letting my two options expire worthless. I could’ve made a bit more money in the month that that saw the Dow gain 2.71% and the S&P 500 gain 5.24%, but I had a lot on my plate and took the time to focus on my clients’ accounts and other distractions I’ve had. Thankfully, I still made money. I ended April with a Net Asset Value (NAV) of $133,385.58 according to Interactive Brokers (IB) after ending March with a balance of $131,455.06. That gives me a gain of $1,930.52 (~1.47%) on paper. I had two closing trades in April to give me a realized gain of $1,027.89, including the $15.17 in short interest left over from my TLT position and $39.47 in dividends received from my QQQ position. I’m glad I didn’t sell a covered call on my QQQ shares too early, but I really should’ve opened more exposure elsewhere. I’ll get to it later this week if things go as planned. I’ll probably start with IWM and MJ naked puts and then look for other trades after that.

Quicken reported that I have an account value of $133,358.58 which is the same as what IB says, after I subtracted the penny rounding error from last month. I have no dividend or interest accruals, just 100 shares of QQQ that paid a dividend in April.

I’m only 25.26% invested in this account as of the end of April. I have $99,547.11 left in uninvested cash. It feels weird with no options in my account right now and hope that as I ease back in, we don’t see the occasional “sell in May and go away” tradition. I don’t expect it this year because we’re still in a recovery, but also wouldn’t be surprised because I think stocks are a little ahead of themselves on valuations.

This is my asset allocation in my IB account as of the end of March 2021:

• Large-cap ETF: 25.26% (Only QQQ for now)
• Mid-Cap ETFs: 0%
• Small-Cap ETF: 0%
• International: 0%
• Individual Stocks & Other Sector ETFs: 0%
• Bonds: 0%

Here’s how I compare to the major indexes:

• Dow Jones: YTD change +2.71%, 12-month change +39.14%
• S&P 500: YTD change +5.24%, 12-month change +43.56%
• NASDAQ Composite: YTD change +5.40%, 12-month change +57.07%
• Small-caps: YTD change +4.05%, 12-month change +70.20%
• Mid-caps: YTD change +4.90%, 12-month change +57.90%

My return according to Quicken through March 31, 2021:

• YTD change: +6.55% (not annualized)
• 1 Year change: +28.54%

The VIX ended the month at 18.61 and the VXN ended at 22.90. The VIX peaked on April 22, when it hit an intraday high of 19.90. The VXN peaked two days earlier at 25.4. Both volatility gauges remain very subdued compared to the previous year’s levels. The VIX even fell as low as 15.38 intraday on April 14. It can still go lower, but we’re starting to see more complacency in sentiment and that always gives me reason for pause. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I have so much cash on the sidelines too. Even if I remain nervous, I plan to sell out of the money puts at a minimum.